Clarissa "Kitta" Reeds
Jan. 23, 1936-May 16, 2015
Palo Alto, California

Kitta Reeds, a longtime resident of Palo Alto and retiree from Stanford Research International, died peacefully on May 16, 2015. This was the end of her eight-year struggle with cancer. Kitta Reeds was born Jan. 23, 1936, in Augusta, Georgia. During World War II, when her father served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, the family moved across the U.S., followed by overseas assignments in Vienna, Salzburg and Linz, Austria, then Nogoya, Japan and Puerto Rico. Kitta's humorous short story memoirs of these times have long been familiar to fellow members of her Palo Alto Writers' group. Kitta attended William and Mary College and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. For many years Kitta worked as editorial consultant and technical writer at SRI. A humorous account of her life as an editor appeared in her book "The Zen of Proposal Writing," 2002 (Three Rivers Press).

Kitta was married to Jack Reeds of Palo Alto who died in 1991. She is survived by her daughters, Jenny Reeds and Maia Mandoli; her grandchildren, Stephen, Dylan and Joanna; her daughter-in-law Diane, son Kevin and his daughter Chelsea of San Francisco; and her sisters, Barbara Hansen and Marlys Mayfield of Marin County.